


Something Sparkly

by sharpshooting



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allurance Secret Santa 2017, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Royalty, after a fashion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 21:06:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13152042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharpshooting/pseuds/sharpshooting
Summary: On a bright, clear day at the North Pole, Guardsman Lance takes Princess Allura out to get somethingsparkly.





	Something Sparkly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [greenemeraldjoy](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=greenemeraldjoy).



"Hey, psssst, Princess!"

Allura's betters would have liked to say she trudged away from her waterbending lessons with extreme reluctance, but it was actually closer to a _skip,_ and that reluctance was nowhere to be found.

"Yes, oh Guard?" Princess Allura asked as she sidled out of the sparring queue and up to the decorative fence that Lance was pressing his face up against.

That face just _screamed_ mischief—a feeling he proved right as soon as she got close enough for no one to overhear. "Guess what?"

Allura folded her arms, quirking an eyebrow and probably failing to look anything _like_ unamused. "What?"

Lance beckoned her closer with a crooked finger.

Rolling her eyes in a gesture grand enough to let him know just how unnecessary this was, Allura bent close.

With great ceremony, Lance cupped a hand around his mouth and whisper-hissed, _"The sky pirates are in town."_

...Sky pirates?

Allura pulled back and frowned at her guard in confusion. What were _sky pirates?_

Lance blinked back, obviously not having expected this reaction. "Uhh, the traders? Black market dealers? Coran's worst enemy _forever?"_

This was... _starting_ to ring a bell...

Lance draped his hands through the fence like it was the stocks and huffed, his fun _very obviously_ ruined and _god, couldn't you keep up a little better, Princess?_ "Shiro needs me to run errands, so I'm going to go find a bunch of platypus-bear leather, and..." His eyes lit up again—apparently he'd remembered his original mission, as the next words out of his mouth were, "And you and I could go get something _sparkly._ "

Allura's first instinct was to tell her wayward paladin that she was really _very_ busy and, really, she couldn't stop to indulge _all_ his whims...

And then she remembered that the alternative was sticking around here and attending to her lessons.

She opened her mouth to agree—

"Absolutely not!"

—and nearly jumped out of her _skin._

"Owww, Coran!" Lance whined, spreading his fence-locked hands with a deeply injured look. "What gives?"

"I will _not_ have the princess anywhere _near_ those scallywags." Coran folded his arms, sharp blue eyes scouring them both to the bone before he turned up his nose. "And she has lessons, besides."

Allura scrunched her face up like she was tasting something sour. It almost _felt_ like something sour when she was forced to think of her lessons. Or maybe not sour, but... chalky. Dry. Boring. Like those candies they'd gotten from the Fire Tribe last solstice.

Allura was sick to _death_ of her lessons.

Carefully wiping her face clear of any sign of distaste, she turned to Coran with her most convincing ingenue smile. "Oh but I'd _love_ something sparkly."

Coran was unmoved. "Not happening, princess! You have your lessons, and Lance—" He fixed the paladin with his infamous stink-eye. "—has some very important errands to run! Back to work now, both of you."

Coran ushered Allura away, but not quick enough to keep her from catching the wink Lance tossed at her retreating back, nor the quick hand-signal for four o'clock.

* * *

Lance, as promised, was waiting below her window at four o'clock.

"I hope you know how _hard_ it was to get from under Coran's nose," she said, dusting the ice shards from her hasty escape off her skirt.

Lance snorted and offered his arm. "Hard? How hard is it to tell the gatekeepers you need to use the little princesses' room and then crawl out the air vent?"

Allura sniffed, laying her gloved hand delicately in the crook of his elbow. "We all have our ways."

Lance let her off easy. "And _our_ way," he said, clapping his own two gloved hands together and rubbing them with great glee, "is right into sky pirate territory. Let's go."

* * *

The sky pirates' market was _officially_ the greatest thing Allura had ever seen.

It wasn't anything _big_ , per se; they'd camped out in one of the emptier sections of the city, faces pale and pinched from the cold while their sky bison snoozed in the narrow streets. There were stalls with all sorts of things, from teas and spices to Shiro's platypus-bear leather straps and jewelry to exotic weapons to _pets_.

Lance had promised something sparkly, and Allura was absolutely holding him to that—especially when they came upon a stall selling sugar-encrusted pastries.

"...Seriously?" Lance asked when met with her most hopeful look. "I've been saving up for _ages_ and you want... pie?"

"Come now, lad," rumbled the baker, looking both highly amused and slightly smug. "Are you really going to leave your lady wanting?"

 _Are you?_ Allura asked with a jutted lip and batted eyelashes.

"Fiiiiine," Lance groaned, fishing coins out of his pouch and slapping them down on the counter, completely drowning out Allura's tiny crow of delight. "Two of those, thanks. I thought princesses were supposed to be, like, _high-maintenance_ or something."

Allura was too busy savoring the pastry she was handed to pay him much heed.

It smelled _wonderful,_ sweet and tangy and nutty, seeping heat through the fur of her gloves and sending little curls of steam into the chill air. The sugar crystals were cool and smooth against her tongue, crumbling delicately between her teeth as the thickened fruit juices flooded her tongue.

Allura sighed in utter delight. Flour was a commodity she would envy the other nations _forever._

When she emerged from that _heavenly_ experience, she found Lance staring at her, red cheeked, with his pie still in his hands like he'd forgotten it somehow, and the baker muffling laughter into his wrist.

"...What?"

Lance coughed and looked away, holding his own untouched pie out to her. "Uh. Nothing. Here."

Allura snatched the treasure out of his hands, not nearly above taking advantage of his clear lapse of judgement. "Oh Lance, you're the _best._ "

Both Lance and the baker choked, though their expressions were radically different as they did so.

"H-hey, you know what?" Lance said, strained. "We should, uh, go check out that cow."

"That... what?" she asked, distracted with licking the filling from the perfect little crescent indent she'd made.

Lance stared at the glob of red on her tongue, and then swallowed and pointed in the direction of the city gates. "Over there."

"Oh," said Allura. She squinted in the direction he'd pointed. "I don't see anything...?"

"Tha-tha-that's okay!" Lance stuttered, backpedaling. "I'll just! Go over there. By myself."

The baker, now doubled down behind his counter rustling things behind it almost loud enough to cover up his muffled snickers, missed Lance beating a hasty retreat.

"...Was it something I said?" she wondered at the man when he reemerged, and then blinked when he ducked right back down again.

* * *

For all that Coran had insisted the sky pirates were 'scallywags,' they were pretty helpful in pointing her towards Lance when she'd finished her pastry.

She found him hugging a sky bison with a morose look, and though he refused to tell her what was wrong, they had a good time play-fencing with one another and smelling the spices and helping the pirates feed the critters.

"...Well, time to face the music," Lance mumbled as they stumbled through the castle doors together, platypus-bear leather in hand along with an assortment of nick-knacks. "It was nice knowing you."

"Drama, drama," she teased, despite the apprehension tightening her own gut. Then, much softer: "Thank you, Lance. That was the most fun I've had in ages."

"D'aw, Princess, don't say that. I'll start to think I'm _special._ "

The swell of affection in her chest was about as surprising as it wasn't. Lance just... did this to her, sometimes.

"You're _very_ special," she confided, and kissed his cheek. "Wish me luck."

"U-uh," Lance breathed as he stumbled. "Y-yeah. Good luck."

_"Princess Allura!"_

With one last wave, Allura approached her fate.

(She was grounded for a month, but, seeing as that didn't stop Lance from sneaking in to see her every other day or so, she couldn't really say it wasn't worth it.)


End file.
